University Museum Collections
The Jyväskylä University Museum collects, studies and exhibits material related to the past and present of the university, along with presenting natural history collections focusing on Central Finland. The origin of the museum’s collections dates back to the 1860s when the Jyväskylä Teacher Seminary, the first educational institution for primary school teachers in Finland, started to gather a collection for teaching purposes.
At the end of the 19th century, architect Yrjö Blomstedt, a lecturer of handicrafts and drawing at the seminary, started to collect historical and contemporary items about people’s life. The ethnographic museum of the Jyväskylä Teacher Seminary was established in 1900. After the Seminary era, the collections passed to the Jyväskylä College of Education.
Today the collection consists of archives of predecessors of the university: Jyväskylä Teacher Seminary, College of Education and 1966 established Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥. It also contains the archives of the Student Union of the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥.
Already during the Seminary years, collections were made to support the teaching of natural sciences. Some teachers made trips abroad and brought back exotic animal samples. In 1975, the teaching collections at the Department of Biology were named as the Natural History Collection of the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥. Today, the Natural History Museum is located on the Harju ridge in Jyväskylä. On 1 January 2017, the Jyväskylä University Museum and the Jyväskylä University Library merged to form the Open Science Centre.
The museum’s collection items are mostly borrowed for scientific research. The museum’s collection items are mostly borrowed for scientific research. If you wish to study the collection or borrow items from it, please contact the museum curators first.
Contact persons for cultural history collections:
Contact person for the university's art collection:
Contact person for natural history collections:
Use the form to contact the collection services:
